Alaska

A woman in the US state of Alaska was pulling off an embezzlement scheme so sly that even an IRS audit didn’t uncover the theft. But then her boss’s grandson infected granddaddy’s computer with a virus, ultimately leading to the discovery of false cheques. Read More >>

Bitter winters still dominate life in the Alaskan interior, but a practiced eye can spot the signs of a warming climate, particularly in the ground. Beneath the rolling fields of tussock scattered just north of the Alaska Range, what was once permanently frozen is starting to thaw. The impacts could ripple across the planet. Read More >>

The US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has released video of a test conducted yesterday using a dummy missile that was launched north of Hawaii. The missile was obliterated by another missile shot from Alaska by the THAAD defence system. And it’s a not-so-subtle message to North Korea that the US is ready to shoot down any object that may threaten US airspace. Read More >>

Brad Webster was just showing a friend around the isolated town of Unalakleet, Alaska when they stumbled on a stark example of just how brutal nature can be — two dead moose, still locked in combat, frozen in ice. Read More >>

An extraordinarily large landslide has been discovered near Glacier Bay in southeast Alaska. Aerial photos show a snow-capped mountain with a huge chunk taken out of it—and a debris field that extends for nearly seven miles Read More >>

After spending $7 billion drilling for oil and gas in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska, oil giant Shell has announced that it will cease all drilling due to “a clearly disappointing exploration outcome”. This means there might be zero drilling off Alaska’s Arctic coast in the near future.Read More >>

I’m a city person. I like buildings and bridges and streets and corners. I like angles and materials and signs and lights. But even I can let my jaw hang throughout this entire video about forests and mountains. The aerial video filmed by Earth Porn Films starts with the greenery of Alberta, Canada and transforms into the winter wonderland that is Alaska. It is truly stunning. Read More >>

An impossibly long, single-lane tunnel is your only way into Whittier, and your only way out. Make it to the other end of those dimly lit miles, and you'll find all the ingredients of a city. Except instead of a sprawling, urban centre, this town has been scaled to fit almost entirely into one lonely Alaskan tower. Read More >>

This turquoise gem is what summer looks like in southeastern Alaska. From an altitude twice that of commercial jets, NASA's arctic research airplane ER-2 (a civilian version of the Air Force's U2-S reconnaissance plane) captured this view of a summertime melt pond atop a glacier on July 16, 2014. [NASA Earth Observatory] Read More >>

Even out in Alaska, this gigantic urethane igloo sticks out like a bizarre, misplaced structure on the side of Parks Highway. It's long been a curiosity for tourists whizzing by on the way to Denali National Park. And now the famous landmark is for sale to the tune of $300,000 (£177, 595). Read More >>

While human cryogenics is still in its pie-in-the-sky, butt-of-the-joke phase, a frog that lives in Alaska's subzero temperatures can pull off a surprisingly similar feat. Scientists have now documented the wood frog surviving through its longest and coldest states ever. This frog could someday hold the key to preserving organs for transplant and maybe just maybe even human cryogenics. Read More >>

At 5:42 a.m. on March 27, 1964, a 9.2-magnitude earthquake erupted 78 miles east of Anchorage, Alaska. The earthquake remains the most powerful earthquake to strike North America, and the second-largest earthquake ever measured. Read More >>